The Walker Blog: February 2009

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Posted by Steve and Cat Walker | Update on life | 10:19 AM

We hope you all had a great Vaentine's Day! We went to Outback last night for dinner and they had a "Sweetheart Special" that included an appetizer, two salads, two 7oz filets with one side each, and two slices of cheesecake for dessert. This was all for $45. It was a SUPER deal considering that we always order the 7oz filets for dinner and the salad isn't included. Just the filets and salads come to $42. So we got the Bloomin' Onion and two slices of cheesecake for just $3 more!

Steve bought Cathy an iPhone for Valentine's Day. It's the coolest phone! She loves it and now Steve thinks he might want one too. If you haven't had a chance to ever see one or play with on-- you shouldn't try it unless you are prepared to buy one! You'll definitely want one once you play with it and see all that it can do. There are literally applications for EVERYTHING under the sun. Cathy got one for grocery shopping and we put our list on her iPhone. Very cool.

Cathy goes back to work this week. She's not looking forward to it, but Steve is. She has nine more weeks in her current classroom and then she has to move to another room (April 19th). Her Ecology Club is still going strong and she's been enjoying the time she spends with her kids.

There's not much more to report at this time. The Walker Blog is just about finished... so keep your eyes peeled for a link to view the completed site!!

:)
The Walkers

Update-- Where did January go??

Posted by Cat's Litterbox | Where does the time go?? | 9:35 AM

Hello!! Honestly, where does the time go? We need to get better about coming up more often and posting an update. Sometimes it's hard because there's nothing new to report, but then a month and a half goes by and we're shocked at all that's happened that we haven't reported! :)

As of our last posting, it was two days before Christmas. We had such a wonderful holiday this year. We actually put up a tree, and Steve decorated the outside of the house (see the pictures in the above slide-show).

We went to Cathy's friend Elizabeth's house for Christmas this year. We had ham that E made, and then Cathy made the BEST au-gratin potatoes ever from scratch, and Steve made a mean mac-n-cheese from scratch. It was a very delicious dinner and then we went to view some Christmas lights. We got back to Elizabeth's house and we played a game... "Holly Springs Trivia"-- lol and we were awful. Who cares when HS became a city?? LOL.

Cathy had a party on December 30th and she invited some friends over to sing on the Wii (American Idol Encore and Encore2). They also played Guitar Hero World Tour-- but the tour ended abruptly because the fans just didn't appreciate their efforts. LOL.

Cathy's parents arrived the next day and we were so excited to see them! We gave them their Christmas gifts right away because Cathy couldn't wait. We gave them both a gas gift card to share (help pay for gas on their drive back north), and then we gave Cathy's mom a digital photo frame. Cathy spent three days adding pictures to the card so it'd be ready for her mom. He mom received three this year for Christmas... one from Bill, one from us, and one from Dave and his family. We think next year we should communicate about gifts. LOL. We gave Cathy's dad his annual gift card to REI (he loves that store) and then Steve gave him the DVD "Shine A Light" and then Cathy put together this really cute picture frame for him. It had a picture of Scott and Cathy when they were little in Washington DC, and then there was a picture of them together in November in DC, and individual pictures of them in DC this last November waving (it's their thing). Anyway, her dad REALLY enjoyed the picture and got a little teary-eyed. Cathy was really excited to see his reaction and to see that he really loved it.

We welcomed in the New Year and then went to bed soon after. While her parents were here they played Guitar Hero World Tour. Cathy and her dad set out on a mission to play every song and finish the tour and they did! It took them the whole visit to do so, but with Cathy on the lead guitar and Bill on the bass, they made their way (some songs they played OVER AND OVER AND OVER). It was fun to watch them having so much fun together. And let's not forget the fun they had singing together. LOL. We have some incriminating audio of them singing "Living on a Prayer" and we'd love to share sometime. HA HA HA.

So that was the beginning of January-- we had our first snow fall (see pictures at top) on the 20th. It was perfect timing because it also happened to be Inauguration Day. Cathy had a snow day (who would have thought there'd be a snow day here in NC?) and was able to watch the Inauguration here at home. She had a second snow day on Wednesday the 21st. Thursday the 22nd she had school, but it was a two-hour delay. She had to make up the missed day on the 20th by going to work on Saturday (yeah... Saturday school is no fun for anyone). It was not her favorite thing to do on a Saturday, but it was only a half day and she tracked out on the 27th so it wasn't too bad. She has to make up the other snow day on April 4th.

Right as Cathy tracked out, she came down with a severe sore throat. She went to the Minute Clinic and they did two strep tests and said they were negative. The nurse practitioner told Cathy to rinse with warm salt water and see a doctor if it got worse. She was in so much pain the rest of the day and the whole next day. She finally went to the doctor, they did a test for Mono and the flu and both were negative. The doctor gave her medication to knock out strep-- when Cathy got home, the nurse at the Minute Clinic had called-- her lab results had come back positive for strep. So she did have it! Steve started meds too just to make sure he didn't get it-- and after a few days she was better.

So that puts us into February. Cathy is tracked out (her favorite place to be) and working on the finishing touches of the new and improved Walker Website. As soon as it's done we'll let you know so you can check it out and bookmark it! It looks amazing-- we're sure you'll absolutely love it as much as we do!!

:)
We'll write again soon!

The Walkers